{"id":63594,"date":"2019-09-27T15:11:55","date_gmt":"2019-09-27T12:11:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=63594"},"modified":"2019-09-27T15:23:32","modified_gmt":"2019-09-27T12:23:32","slug":"the-binding-of-isaac-is-not-a-sermon-but-an-invitation-to-a-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-binding-of-isaac-is-not-a-sermon-but-an-invitation-to-a-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"The Binding Of Isaac Is Not A Sermon, But An Invitation To A Debate"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u2026while I tried to give the Torah the benefit of the doubt because of its antiquity and just focus on its beautiful and inspiring parts\u2014stories of courage and devotion, laws that emphasize our obligations to the vulnerable\u2014I found it hard to get beyond its disturbing aspects.<\/p>\n

What was I supposed to do with that story about God ordering Abraham to slaughter his own son, for example? What kind of God would demand such a thing? What kind of person would be willing to obey such an order? Why is this person considered the father of the Jewish people? Why is this God the Jewish God?<\/p>\n

This reaction is a good snapshot of how I had always approached Judaism: largely ignorant of context or history, generally assuming the worst, and quick to judge based on surface appearances.<\/p>\n

To move from the skepticism\/disdain stage of reading the Torah to the gradual comprehension \/grudging appreciation stage, I first had to do some learning. I started with a classic essay entitled \u201cOdysseus\u2019 Scar,\u201d in which literary scholar Erich Auerbach compares Homer\u2019s Od\u00adyssey <\/em>to the Hebrew Bible. The Torah, Auerbach explains, is not writ\u00adten in epic poetry, as was the case with the Odyssey <\/em>and other ancient texts, but in an unusually spare kind of prose. While in the Odyssey, <\/em>Homer shares his characters\u2019 every thought and emotion in copious detail\u2014with \u201cnever a lacuna, never a gap, never a glimpse of un\u00adplumbed depths\u201d\u2014in the Torah, by contrast, \u201cthoughts and feeling re\u00admain unexpressed, are only suggested by the silence and the fragmentary speeches.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2026Is the Akeda a simple polemic against child sacrifice, which the Torah repeatedly condemns? Or does it have a deeper message about the complexities of faith and family (note that this scene is the last time in the Torah that Abraham and Isaac speak to each other)?<\/p>\n

The Torah provides no clear answers to these questions. This story is not a simple morality tale, it is a provocation, an invitation to a conversation\u2014or maybe a debate\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2026This text, I realized, is not meant to be read for plot, it\u2019s meant to be interpreted for meaning. Doing so requires serious effort on the part of the reader, because the Torah is sparing with details not just in the stories it tells but in the laws it dictates as well.<\/p>\n

Excerpt from Sarah Hurwitz, Here All Along: Finding Meaning, Spirituality, and a Deeper Connection to Life\u2014in Judaism (after finally<\/u> choosing to look there),<\/em> Random House, 2019, p. 10-12.<\/p>\n","image":{"ID":63589,"id":63589,"title":"Sarah Hurwitz cover","filename":"Sarah-Hurwitz-cover.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Sarah-Hurwitz-cover.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/discovering-millions-of-pages-and-new-old-ideas\/sarah-hurwitz-cover\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"sarah-hurwitz-cover","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":63586,"date":"2019-09-26 15:33:44","modified":"2019-10-22 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